Den – Tokyo (**, 4.3 Tabelog Silver)

Recently went on a fine dining heavy trip to Japan hitting a couple bucket list destinations. Den, Florilege and Sazenka were high on my list. Unfortunately, Florilege was closed during my entire visit and struck out on Sazenka. But somehow miraculously landed a reservation at Den on my very last night on a Monday.

A few comments on landing a reservation, I tried for Friday and Saturday calling nonstop for about 1.5 hours and only landed on the wait list. Oddly enough, when tried for Monday, I also waited a little longer, almost 2 hours, but managed to land a reservation. Not to mention Monday is less popular, but I sense regulars usually take up the Friday and Saturday slots. So general advice, go on weekday and don't give up, it's worth the effort. Also worth noting that Den has a huge following with locals and majority of the diners that evening were local Japanese when I was expecting largely foreign crowd.

Den has been on my list for over 10 years since it landed on the top 50 and after 4 Japan trips, finally landed a reservation and it did not disappoint. The food is very well executed and it's definitely Keiseki but a much more modern and 'western' take. I won't say the food was 'innovative' or contained crazy rare ingredients, it very much follows the seasonality and utmost care and attention to detail. One of the highlights was the signature salad dish, many different textures and preparations of vegetables that helped shine and coax the maximal potential of each dish, it sounds cliché, but it really did and it was a special dish. Other highlight was the white asparagus and squid, both in season and one of the best squid dishes considering I don't care for squid in general, soft and tender. Another highlight was the claypot rice and sancho pepper, which the latter is considered a Japanese delicacy and only available during the Spring. It was a nice numbing pepper and rice, a unique dish.

What makes this restaurant special however is the experience overall. You can tell everyone genuinely loves working there, I learned several of the cooks have worked there over 7 years and our server, Noriko, worked there just as long. Even the chef, with his limited English, made it a point to interact with all his customers even the foreigners, which to my surprise was only 2 parties in the whole restaurant (there were only 15 tables). We talked baseball, the chefs that have come and visited, talked about his popup trips to California, it was a surprisingly casual, chaotic and fun dining experience. Given that most Japanese fine dining experiences are mostly serious and all about the food, Den makes it fun, interactive and delicious.